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NORA KOCHThey want government-imposed duties on foreign shrimp, and this week they scored a preliminary victory.
TARPON SPRINGS - Taped to the glass front door of Northside Seafood Market, next to a window sign with the dockside store's business hours, is a red and white sticker that sums up John Williams cause:
"Friends don't let friends eat imported shrimp."
In fact, if this life-long shrimper had his way, there is a lot of shrimp on the American market that no one would eat.
Williams is the secretary and treasurer of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an industry group representing shrimpers in eight states that has petitioned the U.S. Department of Commerce to impose duties on cheap imports from six Asian and South American countries. Those imports, dumped on the U.S. market in recent years, has led to an economic crisis in their mom-and-pop industry, the shrimp alliance alleges.
This week, however, the alliance scored a preliminary victory when the International Trade Commission on Tuesday ruled in its favor. The six commissioners of the ITC voted that there is a reasonable indication that the industry has been injured by frozen and canned shrimp imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
In December, American shrimpers filed a petition claiming shrimp exporters from those countries have dumped shrimp on the U.S. market. The petition aims to get duties imposed on the imports that are sold here at lower prices than in the exporter's home country.
Small-time domestic shrimpers like Williams, who owns three shrimp boats that harvest in the Gulf of Mexico, claim cheap imported shrimp raised in ponds in those countries and sold at prices below fair market value are slowly squeezing them out of business.
Sal Versaggi, whose family has run Versaggi Shrimp Corp. in Tampa since 1912, was the executive director of the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee, which officially filed the petition. He testified before the ITC last month about the effect of current market conditions on his business. Versaggi's seven-boat company hasn't turned a profit in three years, he said.
"You can't continue to operate at a loss forever," Versaggi said.
Because the ITC ruled in the shrimper's favor, the anti-dumping petition is now in the hands of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which will conduct an economic investigation to determine if the shrimp was dumped below market prices. The department is scheduled to make a preliminary ruling on June 8. A tariff ruling could come as early as October.
Wally Stevens, president of American Seafood Distributors Association, a vocal opponent of the petition, said he believes the dumping allegations won't hold up in the investigation.
Even if it does, and the United States imposes duties, that wouldn't solve the problem of open-water shrimp harvesters, said Stevens, whose group represents the American side of imported shrimp. There are many aspects to the decline of domestic shrimping, ranging from marketing and quality to technology and environment.
"It's like handsewn shoes and machine-made shoes," Stevens said. Machine made is going to be cheaper every time. You just have to market your wild card product."
The shrimp alliance understands its industry needs to adapt with the times, said president Eddie Gordon, and since its inception about two years ago, has tried to address problems by uniting shrimpers, hiring lobbyists to educate legislators, differentiating its product to consumers through marketing and experimenting with new technology in packing and promoting.
There needs to be a solution soon, said Williams, who is a co-owner of the seafood market and Gulf Partners Ltd., a shrimp-processing dock in Tarpon Springs.
In March 2000, shrimpers at his dock were getting $2.40 for a pound of shrimp. Today that price is 85 cents.
"You can't hardly produce enough shrimp to make it profitable," said Williams, who owns three shrimp boats. "And it's all because of imports."
Lately, his boats have remained tied to the dock. And one boat isn't going anywhere until profits pick up, because its engine is shot and will cost about $60,000 to fix, Williams said.
Bills at Gulf Partners Ltd. are piling up, and money isn't coming in fast enough, Williams said.
"I look at that stack every day and think, "what am I going to do?"' he said. "And that stack is about half as high as the stack at my house."
- Nora Koch can be reached at nkoch@sptimes.com or call 727-771-4304.